When Flexible Routines Meet Flexible Technologies - Affordance, Constraint, and the Imbrication of Human and Material Agencies

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Theodora

Employees in contemporary organizations often work with flexible routines and flexible technologies; when goals cannot be achieved in a given environment, the central question is how they decide whether to recompose routines or change the materiality of technologies. The paper argues that outcomes depend on how human and material agencies are imbricated, generating infrastructural routines and technologies. Perceptions of constraint drive technology change, while perceptions of affordance drive routine change, illustrated through a computer simulation for automotive design.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Human agency perspective

Material agency and performativity

When Flexible Routines Meet Flexible Technologies:Affordance,Constraint,and the Imbrication of Human and Material Agencies Author(s):Paul M.Leonardi Source:MIS Quarterly,Vol.35,No.1(March 2011),pp.147-167 Published by:Management Information Systems Research Center,University of Minnesota Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/23043493 Accessed:15-02-201716:21 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars,researchers,and students discover,use,and build upon a wide range of content in a trusteddigital archive.We use information technology and tools to increaseproductivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information aboutJSTOR,please contact support@jstor.org Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms &Conditions of Use,available athttp://about.jstor.org/terms Management Information Systems Research Center,University of Minnesotaiscollaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to MIS Quarterly Paul M.Leonardi Department of Communication Studies and Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences,Northwestern University,2240 Campus Drive,Evanston,IL 60208 U.S.A.{Leonardi@northwestern.edu} Employees in many contemporary organizations work with flexible routines and flexible technologies.Whenthose employees find that they areunable to achieve their goals in the current environment,how do they decidewhether they should change the composition of their routines or the materiality ofthe technologies with whichthey work?The perspective advanced in this paper suggests that the answer to this question depends on howhuman and material agencies—the basic building blocks common to both routines and technologies—areimbricated.Imbrication of human and material agencies creates infrastructure in the form of routines andtechnologies that people use to carry out their work.Routine or technological infrastructure used at anygivenmoment is the result of previous imbrications of human and material agencies.People draw on this infra-structure to construct a perception that a technology either constrains their ability to achieve their goals,orthat the technology affords the possibility of achieving new goals.The case of a computer simulation tech-nology for automotive design used to illustrate this framework suggests that perceptions of constraint leadpeople to change their technologies while perceptions ofaffordance lead people to change their routines.Thisimbrication metaphor is used to suggest how ahuman agency approach to technology can usefully incorporatenotions of material agency into its explanations oforganizational change. Keywords:Affordances,agency,materiality,routines,organizational change,technological change,percep-tion,imbrication # Introduction Today,few people complete their work without the use ofadvanced information technologies.Employees in knowl-edge-intensive firms are inundated with information tech-nologies,from productivity tools,to simulation software,todecision systems.The use of information technologiesoutside of knowledge-intensive occupations is also growing.Professionals such as plumbers use digital imaging andrecording devices to find clogs in sewer lines;excavators use WHEN FLEXIBLE ROUTINES MEET FLEXIBLE TECHNOLOGIES:AFFORDANCE,CONSTRAINT,AND THE IMBRICATION OFHUMAN AND MATERIAL AGENCIES¹ geographical positioning systems to accurately identify thecorrect depth for foundation footings;city planners use 3Danimation software to model traffic patterns and identifybottlenecks before choosing the locations of roadways andpedestrian paths. The recognition that advanced software-based informationtechnologies (hereafter,just technologies)are permeatingevery aspect of people's work has prompted researchers toquestion the extent to which these technologies determine ourpractices and,in so doing,dominate our lives.A burgeoningline of research adopting a human agency perspective hasprovided a fairly optimistic an

FAQs

What question does the paper address about organizational work?

It asks how employees decide whether to change the composition of flexible routines or the materiality of flexible technologies when they cannot achieve their goals in the current environment.

How does the paper explain the role of human and material agencies?

It proposes that the answer depends on how human and material agencies are imbricated, forming infrastructure in the form of routines and technologies used to carry out work.

What drives people to change technologies versus routines?

Perceptions of constraint lead people to change their technologies, while perceptions of affordance lead people to change their routines, as illustrated by a computer simulation for automotive design.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Theodora